Matrix Partners gears up for 3-4 more exits this year

One of the exits for Matrix Partners will come from hospital chain Cloudnine, for which it had got 7x returns during a partial exit two years ago.Mugdha Variyar | ET Bureau | Updated: June 09, 2017, 10:38 IST

One of these exits will come from hospital chain Cloudnine, for which it had got 7x returns during a partial exit two years ago.

The other exits will be in the tech and healthcare sector, Bajaj said. Matrix Partners is an investor in leading companies such as Ola, Mswipe, Quikr and Treebo, including several healthcare companies such as Practo, Cloudnine, Techmed, Hearing Plus, Centre For Sight hospitals and Mewar Orthopaedic Hospitals.

“We have a bunch of scaled up businesses from our first fund. In terms of pipeline, we may do three to four more in the rest of the calendar year.We hope to see a 50% higher exit than the previous 7x, when we exit Cloudnine completely ,“ Bajaj said. The VC fund has seen nearly 15 profitable exits so far, he added. Matrix made 10 exits since 2015 alone, according to data from Venture Intelligence.

Bajaj said the depth of the market and profitability will determine the exits. “In some cases, the depth has fully arrived, such as in the payments business, or in the cab business like Ola. Ace2Three and ItzCash were also both profitable businesses with an India innovation. Market depth and profitability will make exits easier,“ Bajaj said.

Matrix had led a $10-million investment in ItzCash along with Intel Capital and also participated in a subsequent round with Lightspeed Venture Partners. It got an exit along with the other investors when US-based insurance software company Ebix acquired 80% stake in ItzCash last month. Bajaj said the exit saw returns of over 3x for Matrix.

The VC firm also saw a handsome exit of 20x from Ace2Three when Canadian investment firm Clairvest picked up a majority stake in the gaming company in April, seeing over Rs 257 crore in returns on its $2-million investment seven years ago.

One of Matrix's biggest exits in terms of return multiple was in 2015 when it saw a 30x return on a partial sale in Quikr, according to Venture Intelligence. Last year, it made a 5x return by completely exiting TCNS Clothing.

However, Matrix is still behind VC firms like Sequoia and Helion Venture Partners when it comes to number of exits. Sequoia saw six to nine exits last year, as per data from Tracxn and Venture Intelligence, followed by five by Nexus Venture Partners. So far this year, Sequoia has already seen five exits, while Matrix has seen three.